This year’s “Gymnasiedagarna” (upper secondary school days) and Future Skills exhibition set a new record, with 35,000 visitors. Around 900 job seekers, adult learners and students of Swedish for Immigrants came to meet representatives of around 100 companies and learn more about the future job market. The Trade & Industry Group was committed to opening up the fair to more visitors this year.

On 8–10 October, the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre was filled with school students, guardians, job seekers, adult learners and students of Swedish for Immigrants, who came to take part in Gymnasiedagarna and Future Skills. The annual information and guidance fair is an opportunity for visitors to talk to upper secondary schools in the region, as well as labour market representatives and education and career counsellors, to help them choose the right upper secondary education.

This year, the Trade & Industry Group aimed to reach out to more students by arranging a variety of activities, including a bus tour from Hammarkullen to the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre and an information meeting in Arabic.

As a result of collaboration with Nytorpsskolan, 35 guardians travelled by bus from Hammarkullen to the fair.

“It’s important to get together like this. Parents are our most important intermediaries, and I’m convinced that parents’ involvement in their children’s high school choices helps students to make more considered choices that suit them in the long term. An added bonus was that parents also had an opportunity to engage with entrepreneurs, representatives from industry and various educators, so they could also gather information about different career opportunities themselves, which many said was important,” said Else-Marie Hallqvist, principal of Nytorpsskolan in Hammarkullen.

Gymnasiedagarna is arranged by the Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities (GR). Future Skills is jointly organised by GR, Business Region Göteborg, Region Västra Götaland, the Trade & Industry Group at Gothenburg & Co, and the Swedish Public Employment Service. For more information, see www.gymnasiedagarna.se